April 25, 2013 by plemmonsa

Kindergarten Tux Paint Consultants

Today Mrs. Kelly Hocking’s Kindergarten students had so much fun Skyping with Shannon Miller’s Kindergarten and 1st Grade students in Van Meter, IA. Shannon’s students are planning to embark on a similar project as Kelly’s students by making their own stories in Tux Paint and recording them with a screencasting tool. The purpose of today’s Skype session was for Shannon’s students to ask Kelly’s students about what they did.

Shannon’s students watched our videos in Van Meter, IA before our connection

Before our connection, Shannon showed her students our Tux Paint videos made in Screencast-o-matic, including the instructional video. She let me know on Twitter that they were ready.

When we connected, Shannon’s students applauded Kelly’s students’ great work on their stories. Then she guided them in asking questions about the process. They asked questions like:

How did you decide what to write about?
How did you work together?
How did you learn to use Tux Paint?
What screencasting tool did you use?
How long did your story have to be?
and more

Each time a question was asked, Mrs. Kelly called on a student to answer, and sometimes she answered the question or added additional insight. We had a computer ready with Tux Paint in case we needed it to show something. The students also had their planning paper, which they showed to answer one of the questions. I had a USB webcam plugged in so that I could move the camera closer to students as they talked. Although, my camera skills weren’t great, I think the kids enjoyed seeing themselves closeup on the screen.

Now, Shannon’s K and 1st grade students plan to use Tux Paint to make their own stories and use a new screencasting tool to record them. We ended our time by agreeing to come back together to Skype and share our work with one another before the end of the year.

Shannon, Kelly, and I could have all easily just done the teaching of Tux Paint on our own, but giving the students this ownership of the project and sharing of expertise between schools means so much more. I think that they now look at themselves as experts with knowledge to share. Not only do they have the knowledge, they have the support that it is ok to take a leadership role in the classroom and teach alongside the adult teacher. They also know that they have an authentic audience that their work immediately impacts. I hope that this idea blossoms into other opportunities for students to demonstrate their knowledge and become leaders in technology and learning for our school and beyond.

April 22, 2013 by plemmonsa

Kindergarten Experts: A Tux Paint Instructional Video

Students gathered around the netbook to plan out what they would share on the screencast.

I was so impressed by the work that Mrs. Kelly Hocking’s Kindergarten students did on their Tux Paint stories. You can read more about that adventure here. We wanted to continue their work in some way so that it might inspire and support other classes in trying Tux Paint. After some planning, we decided to have the kids make an instructional video. Mrs. Hocking brought her whole class to the library. We talked about how instructional videos are a kind of informational text just like they are reading in their classrooms. We also talked about being a leader and sharing expertise. I made a screencast to show how to make an Animoto and we watched a part of that.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PUPNdRD6Q2g

Along the way, I paused and had students talk about things that they noticed. They shared things like

You clicked on things.
You talked about what you were clicking on.
You didn’t use a silly voice. You used a serious voice.

We continued this pattern of watching and sharing for a few minutes. Mrs. Hocking and I both added our own observations of what to include in an instructional video, too. I told the students that they had to take themselves all the way back to the beginning and think about what they did first, second, third, etc. Then they had to think about what they would say and what they would click.

Our Google doc captured what students would talk about on the screencast.

A small group of 5 students stayed behind in the media center while Mrs. Hocking took the rest of the class back to Kindergarten to talk some more. The small group and I took a netbook and started looking at Tux Paint. I had them show me things they knew how to do. As they did that, I started typing their words and expertise into a Google doc. I also started pushing them to think about order. What would someone do first? second? third? I rearranged our doc to have a better sequence and put student names by each piece of tux paint that they would demo. Then, we practiced. Each student showed his/her knowledge of a certain aspect of Tux Paint. Their tendency was to just click without talking. I had them start again and say what they were doing as they clicked. They also all wanted to talk while someone was clicking, so we had to discuss one person being allowed to speak without being interrupted.

On a separate day, the small group came back and we recorded their screencast using Screecast-o-matic. In between each speaker, we paused the screencast and prepared the screen for the next student. It was a challenge to stay quiet while someone was recording, but they did so much better after our practice in the 1st lesson. Here’s what they created:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uTwGjinM-nY

Our next step will be to send this video to Shannon Miller in Van Meter, Iowa so that her students can watch it and learn how to use Tux Paint. Then, we will Skype with her students for them to ask follow-up questions about using Tux Paint. The video will also be shared with teachers at our school so that they might consider using Tux Paint with their own classes.

I love the potential of this. It is empowering for students to be able to share their expertise with the world, become leaders and teachers, and take time to reflect back on what they have actually learned about a particular technology tool. I want to do more of this in the coming year, especially now that our students have access to Youtube. Imagine the possibilities of students creating videos about what they have expertise in and sharing that with other students in the school. The collaboration potential is mind-boggling!

April 15, 2013 by plemmonsa

Tux Paint Digital Stories with Kindergarten

A few months ago, Mrs. Kelly Hocking, Kindergarten teacher, emailed me with an idea. She wanted to modify an idea that she found online that used KidPix. Since we don’t have KidPix, our first step was to find an alternative. The one that we liked the best was Tux Paint.

I met with Mrs. Hocking to talk about the logistics of installing Tux Paint on all of her netbooks and what that might look like in her center time. She took this and ran with it as usual. In centers, students explored Tux Paint and developed some expertise with the tool. They figured out what worked and what didn’t.

Then, she put the students into work groups. Each group used long rolls of paper to plan out a story and did quick sketches of their illustrations. They used these planning sheets to draw their digital pictures in Tux Paint and type the text. Students practiced their stories in class.

Mrs. Rockholt, the paraprofessional, brought small groups of students to the library to use Screencast-o-matic to record their stories. We saved each screencast on a flash drive and then I uploaed them to Youtube to share with the world. Enjoy!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JsYMlM4T6ao&feature=youtu.be

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pYu3s9tqMB4&feature=youtu.be

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aB4GI2eHorg&feature=youtu.be

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S6hqQG7m53o&feature=youtu.be

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Yh8g0Zscb4&feature=youtu.be

Two groups of students also took some time to talk about the process of the project. Here are there thoughts.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5TE_Corkspg&feature=youtu.be

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7qsk1_idRbM&feature=youtu.be

Next, we plan to share these with our friends at Van Meter Elementary in Van Meter, IA. We are hoping that some of these students can show the students in Iowa how to use Tux Paint.

April 10, 2013 by plemmonsa

3rd Annual Barrow Media Center Poetry Contest

For the past 3 years, the media center has hosted a poetry contest leading up to Poem In Your Pocket Day. The hope was that this contest would encourage students to carry and read original poetry rather than just a copied poem. Each year participation grows. This year, we had over 180 entries from students in grades PreK-5th grade. It is near impossible to choose just one winner in each age bracket. This year, we had 7 top winners. Each of these students earned a certificate, an autographed book or journal, and their poem featured here on our blog.

Over 60 other students earned certificates for poetry in several categories including: list poetry, science poetry, Where I’m From poetry, concrete poetry, acrostic poetry, feelings poetry, humorous poetry, story poetry, found poetry, and deep thinking poetry. These students had their names announced on BTV and earned a pencil, pen, bookmark, or other small prize.

I can’t wait to see how this contest grows, and I especially can’t wait to listen to all of the great poems read aloud at our annual Poem In Your Pocket Days this Thursday and Friday. Please join us! You can find the schedule here.

Where I’m From

By Natalie

2nd Grade

http://youtu.be/mA1CzcMB2uY

I am from the Georgia Bulldogs

A cat who scratches

My Mommy, Daddy, Grandmas and Grandpas

I am from a big purple rose bush

I am from Friday Movie Nights

Eating out at the Burger Barn

I am from a family of worry warts

Rise and shines and Goodnights

I am from golf clubs and bridles

And dreaming to own a famous racehorse

I am from a big funny family

That is where I’m from!

Hummingbird

By Patricia

3rd Grade

http://youtu.be/nHrU_nFzJUg

Hummingbird, Hummingbird

They drink nectar from pretty little flowers.

Hummingbird, Hummingbird

They fly around all day.

Hummingbird, Hummingbird

They flap down and snooze in their nests.

Hummingbird, Hummingbird

It is great to meet you!

Hummingbird, Hummingbird

It is sad to leave you!

Dragons Today, Dragons Tomorrow, Dragons Past, Dragons Forever

By Cassie

5th Grade

http://youtu.be/tmwL65TXtzw

The air beats around me as I open my eyes to see the beautiful creatures flying above my head,

Their wings beat up and down in a pattern together,

Together,

Their wings display colors like you’ve never seen, hypnotizing you, making you see colorful

rabbits hopping in front of your eyes and otters gliding through a river,

I always see wondering dragons all around, wandering, but never this close,

Never this close do I get to hear them,

Roaring and beating their wings, snapping their tails,

Never this close do I get to see them,

Flying above and away,

Never this close do I get to feel them,

The breeze blowing around me at the top of the hill and their breath down my neck,

Never this close do I get to taste them,

The sweet grass I’m chewing and the taste of the freedom and wind,

Never this close do I get to smell them,

The smell of wondering and knowing and curiosity from the young ones,

The young ones fly around, chasing each other and occasionally bumping into elder ones,

while older ones roll their eyes and beat their wings, keeping a steady rhythm through the air,

they don’t notice me on top of the hill watching them,

More dragons sweep through, gathering gusts of air whipping my long hair around,

One glides so close to me, I know if I wanted to reach out and touch it, I would have

touched its scaly skin,

For I am too a young one full of curiosity, living in the world where no man has touched yet,

Where it is peaceful,

The wandering dragons keep sailing through the sky and I don’t notice them growing

smaller as they soar farther away,

As quick as they had come they disappear back into the sky,

I wave goodbye, and as I put my hand down it seems as if a tail sticks out of the sky and

starts waving, as if the dragons are saying good bye to me too,

I take one last look at where the dragons disappeared and then look away, you can’t hope

wandering and wondering dragons to stay forever, because it’s not in their nature,…….

They like to wander and wonder.

April

By Hank

Kindergarten

http://youtu.be/IPKqMCzdABk

April is warm

April is baseball season. Hooray!

April is rain

April is sunlight. Doesn’t everybody love April?

April makes grass green

April is the Final Four and the championship and go Louiseville!

April is the best season

April is when lots of plants grow

April is when people play outdoors

April is school time

April is when it is dark in the morning and light at night

April is when more sports go on.

Fireworks

by Sadie

1st Grade

http://youtu.be/317PC1etZko

Fireworks glisten in the air!

Boom! Crash!

Sizzle! Everywhere.

The colorful colors of light

But when it goes out

It’s the pitch black dark.

The Soldiers Lying on the Battlefield

By Taylor

5th Grade

http://youtu.be/ed_fKLy7x8g

For the strong and the powerful, the ones who lie to rest, all soldiers

who gave their lives, all soldiers who risked their lives for our country.

For our country, to be one people and stay one people.

Our one people, lying on that battlefield, never returning to the

country that will still be free, everyone still free, but them lost, them to never

be found, to always be missing.

Yes it’s them on the battlefield that kept our country one people.

Them, that kept us free. Them, they deserve to be alive more than any of

us. Them, lying on the battlefield.

This is the power of war, this is the power of one bomb, of one

missle, one gunshot, one person with a knife in the forest, this is what it

does to one people, many people.

Thank you veterans lying at rest for giving your life for this nation.

Thank you veterans wounded for everything you lost.

Thank you veterans here before me for going out to war and fighting

brave, as a reward you come back with scars and bruises that show you’re

brave.

Thank you for fighting the fear, for facing the bombs, and missiles,

and one person in the forest with a knife, for keeping us one people, for

keeping us all free.

You deserve the best, you gave me a beautiful nation to live in, and it

was you, you deserve the thanks, you deserve to be one people.

You and soldiers lying on the battlefield.

You.

Extinction

By Eli

4th Grade

http://youtu.be/gG5G-kgqw2I

As the fires rain down

as the gunshots are heard

as the trees burn I wonder

I wonder what caused this

why do we turn on each other

what drives us to kill

why does hell rain from heaven

and why does mankind discriminate,

When we love each other

or do we

and when the bomb drops on only ashes,

what have we achieved

except

destruction

death

terror

extinction

what do we achieve

every move brings us down with a weight

constantly

bearing

down

and

know

what did we gain when we made the bomb

what did we achieve when the cities

burned

human torches

terror

all hell rained down

that day

as the towers fell

as the planes exploded

as the harbor sank

all hell rained down

what do we achieve

do we become godly

or devilish

do we gain power

or lose money

do we become popular

or outcasts

this

the

Human

Races

Extinction

when all hell rains down

Here’s a gallery of our winners from this year:

April 9, 2013 by plemmonsa

Not A Box Display

As part of the participatory culture of the Barrow Media Center, we like to feature student art exhibits. We haven’t had as many this year due to our temporary space while our school is rebuilt. However, today one of my favorite displays returned. Ms. Foretich, our fabulous art teacher, setup the PreK Not a Box display. Students read the book Not a Box by Antoinette Portis and designed their own artistic creations out of boxes. This book always inspires creativity. One of the things I love about this display is how each design is accompanied by a digital photograph of the creation that is labeled so that visitors can understand what each box represents. In the future I could see this project evolving to include some QR codes to make the exhibit more interactive. There’s always something new and innovative that we could include. Time always creates some limitations on what we can do. If you happen to be near the Barrow Media Center, please stop by and take a look. If not, then take a look at the gallery below and feel free to leave comments for Ms. Foretich and her students.

April 2, 2013 by plemmonsa

Exciting Little Free Library News

Kenny Sims, Operations Manager with Athens Home Depot, donates the 2 Little Free Libraries to Barrow

Two major things happened today with our Little Free Libraries. I began talks with a possible location for our 2nd library and our 2 libraries were delivered by Home Depot!

I have to say again that we went into this project with a lot of faith in our community and amazing things are happening. Here are a few recent things:

Several students from other grades have come to tell me that they are cleaning out their home libraries to bring us books that they no longer need.
Several people have brought in books to fill the libraries already.
People donated money during the book fair which was almost enough to register both of our libraries. The 5th graders are about to each bring in $1, which will help us reach that goal. Our library numbers will be 5559 and 5560
A student who wrote a persuasive letter was beaming when he found out that his letter had been received by the recipient.
Home Depot #0129 continues to be a very generous donor to this project. They have built and donated both libraries and are now working with our art teacher to get supplies for painting the 2 libraries. They will also help us with the final supplies for installing both libraries. I can’t thank them enough for their generosity. They definitely have my future home improvement business!

5th graders immediately came to see the 2 libraries

April 1, 2013 by plemmonsa

Poem In Your Pocket Day 2013 is Coming!

We are so excited that National Poetry Month is already here! In just 2 weeks, we will be celebrating Poem In Your Pocket Days. On April 11th & 12th, students in every class will come to the library to our open microphone poetry cafe. The tables will be setup with tablecloths, lanterns, and poetry books. A stool and microphone will be available for students to come up and read their original and favorite poetry for their class to hear. Once again, we will be broadcasting all of this live online via Adobe Connect. This has become a very special event for students because they are able to get their writing and favorite poems out to a much larger audience. When people type comments in the chat feature of Adobe Connect, I always share those with students in the moment. It creates a big pulse of energy in the group. We’ve had family, friends, and other schools tune in from as far away as Afghanistan and England and as close by as the classroom next to us! We hope you will join us to listen to our poems and leave some comments. Here is the schedule:

Thursday April 11, 2013

Time	Class
8:30	3^rd Shealey
9:00	1^st Wyatt
9:30	1^st Watson
10:00	1^st Hart
10:30	4^th Selleck
11:00	2^nd Wright
11:30	4^th Freeman
12:00	1^st Stuckey
12:30	1^st Em
1:00	2^nd Brink
1:30	K Hocking
2:00	2^nd Yawn

Friday April 12, 2013

Time	Class
8:00	5^th Cross
8:30	K Carney
9:00	K Boyle
9:30	K Li
10:00	PreK Doneda
10:30	3^rd Spurgeon
11:00	4^th Olin
11:30	K Vertus
12:00	5^th Slongo
12:30	PreK Clarke
1:00	2^nd Ramseyer
1:30	3^rd Griffith

To login to Adobe Connect, follow these instructions:

Go to http://clarkecounty.adobeconnect.com/barrowmediacenter
Click “enter as guest”
Type your name
Click “enter room” & wait to be approved
Enjoy listening to the poetry and type your comments for students in the chat box.

Leading up to the event, we are having an original poetry contest. All entries are due by this Friday and prizes/certificates will be awarded in multiple categories in PreK-1st, 2nd-3rd, and 4th-5th grades.

Students and teachers are also contributing to a crowd sources poem that I will carry in my pocket on Poem In Your Pocket Day called “Our Library is Not a Quiet Place”. They are submitting lines through a Google Form. You are welcome to submit lines, too. Just go to this link.

March 28, 2013 by plemmonsa

Second Little Free Library

Joel typed his letter, conference with me and his teachers, addressed his envelope, and dropped it in the mail

We are currently looking for a home for our 2nd Little Free Library that is being built by Home Depot. Our school attendance zone stretches from Five Points into downtown Athens, so the students wanted a library to go in each end of our zone. Many of our students live near Lay Park, Lyndon House, and the downtown fire department so they really want our 2nd library to go near that area. Today, a letter was mailed out to Lay Park by a student who goes to Lay Park a lot. Many of our students use this space during the summer and after school, so it really would be a perfect spot for our 2nd library. Students who live in that area could take books from our school donation site and make sure the library stays full. It would be a great source of community service and responsibility for our students. I’m sure that there will be many steps to get approval to put a library in a spot like this. Now, we will wait and see what the response is from the county and Lay Park, but we are going o think positive thoughts for now.

Joel’s letter explains LFL and makes a personal connection

March 21, 2013 by plemmonsa

Little Free Library Update

A display is ready to inform shoppers at our book fair about our Little Free Library project

We have very exciting news in our 5th grade Little Free Library project. Before spring break about 14 kids mailed letters to Home Depot in Athens to ask if they could support our project with some materials. Kenneth Sims, operation manager, emailed me back to ask for a specific list of what we needed. After some more research on the Little Free Library site and consulting with my talented Dad, I sent him a list of what we would need. I knew the list was a lot to ask for, so I told him that we would appreciate anything that they could do.

He emailed me back with great news. Home Depot is donating all of the materials we need to build the libraries, building both libraries for us, delivering them to our school for the kids to decorate, and helping us install them when the time comes. I was absolutely floored. I even got a call from the builder before he started the project to just make sure that all of the plans that they were doing fit with what we needed. I can’t wait to share pictures with you of our project.

We went into this project with a lot of faith that our community would come through for us to make this project happen. It is so great to know that a major business in the community is so giving of their resources in the name of children, community, and literacy.

Now, we have a lot of work to do, but one major weight is lifted off our shoulders. The kids were beaming when I went to their classes to share the news with them. One student in particular was very excited because we realized that she included my email address in her letter in order for the manager to contact us. She was the only student to do this.

Our next steps include:

Painting the designs on our libraries
Nailing down our second location with some more persuasive letters
Raising money for the registration of the libraries
Doing a book drive to fill the libraries and have a stock pile of books to replenish the libraries
Writing speeches to present the libraries at the Moving On Ceremony.
Installing the downtown library in its location
Probably some things we haven’t thought of!

If you would love to help us with our project, we are wide open for help. One way you could help us is by purchasing a book at our book fair next week or shopping our wishlist at our online book fair through April 5th. Here’s info on our online fair:

It’s Book Fair time at our school! I’ve created a classroom wish list to add new books to our classroom library. You can view my classroom wish list and purchase books from our school Book Fair website. These books will be treasured by students for years to come.

You can visit our online Book Fair anytime until 04/05/2013. All books purchased will be shipped directly to me at school with no shipping charge. Thanks for getting our class excited about reading.

Your support is appreciated,

Andy Plemmons

Scholastic Book Fairs inspire a lifetime love of reading. A percentage of the total proceeds raised during the Book Fair will stay with the school and help get more kids reading, kids reading more! Visit the Book Fair Web site for detailed information.

March 1, 2013 by plemmonsa

First Grade Google Form Choose Your Own Adventure

A small group of five 1st graders have worked with me during their writing time to create a Google Form Choose Your Own Adventure. This year, some 4th graders tried this with some social studies standards. These 1st graders were free to write about anything that they wanted to. We met during 4 one-hour sessions that looked something like this:

Session 1: I showed a completed Google Form Choose Your Own Adventure as a model. Then, I showed the first steps of creating the story which were to create a title, a beginning, and the first 2 choices the reader had to make.

Session 2: We made new pages for each of our 2 choices and created 2 new choices for each of those choices. We linked the choices from the beginning of the story to the correct pages.

Session 3: We made 4 endings for each of our choices from the middle of the story. We also made a “The End” page. We linked each choice to its correct page.

Session 4: Students used Google to correct spelling, added details to their stories, traded computers with a friend to test their story out, chose a theme for their form, and emailed their final form to me for this post.

These students needed a lot of assistance during this project, so I feel like this is something that would work better in small group settings with adult support for younger students. I do think that the structure of these 4 sessions was very obtainable for these students and 1 adult. These students now have a lot of expertise that they can now share with students in their class. I’m not sure that they could fully create one of these on their own yet, but they definitely developed their skills in Google docs and forms.